Sheffield & District

May 2009

The Brew Company

The monthly special at the Harlequin for May is Amarillo Blonde, a refreshing beer with fruit and floral notes. 

A new beer called Brewers Gold, named after the hops used, is to be launched at the Devonshire Cat this month, and finally a new IPA is due to hit the pumps called Hop Ripper, which has a classic American Hop character.

The April Beer Styles night at The Devonshire Cat focused on Belgian beers and was a complete sell out! Tuesday May 5th is the next Beer Styles night where Pete from The Brew Company will be helping drinkers explore German beers. Advance tickets only are available direct from The Devonshire Cat. ONLY 20 TICKETS AVAILABLE.

There will be FREE BEER on offer at The Devonshire Cat throughout May! The Brew Company is providing a free pint of Brew Co beer with every 8 pints of their ale purchased. Get your cards at the bar and remember to get them stamped each time you buy a pint. There will be a rotating selection of their ales on the bar at all times.

For those of you into new media The Brew Company has its own Facebook page - become a fan for up to the minute info and deals. They are also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/The_Brew_Co You can watch Pete brewing on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0Kz3fni5Zg

Thornbridge Brewery

A beer education

The fruits of a six month collaboration between Thornbridge Brewery and Sheffield University students was revealed with the launch at the University Arms of “Red Brick”, a new 4.9% Copper Ale. 

The collaboration involved the formation of a student “Brew Team” who worked with the Thornbridge brewers to increase their knowledge of beer and the brewing process. “It was a delight to work with such an enthusiastic group” says Kelly Ryan ( T h o r n b r i d g e Brewery Manager) “They certainly got fully involved in the hard work of brewing and showed a great desire to know more about the science of it”. “It was a good challenge for us to brew a beer to their specification but I think with Red Brick we have managed to do that successfully”. 

Pictured are Brewteam members Josh Taylor, Annis Cordy and Maria Consella unveiling the pump clip. Beer Education at a red brick University 

Sensoria - where film meets art meets beer 

When the chance came to support Sensoria the UK’s festival of film and music established to acknowledge Sheffield’s creative and technical innovation, Thornbridge Brewery felt a common synergy. Thornbridge have marked this year’s festival with a new beer Sensoria II - a 4.3%, fruity, tawny coloured ale. The brewers, with their creative and technical skills, have used a range of ingredients including Munich and Amber malts as well as Bramling Cross and Brewers Gold hops to create a highly drinkable session beer . Sensoria II was available from the 9th April at number of Sheffield pubs and other Thornbridge outlets. The Sensoria festival ran from 24th to 30th April. 

An Italian Job 

At the beginning of April, Thornbridge brewer Stefano Cossi will have the privilege of speaking at a Craft Brewing Course for brewers in Milan. The course is organised by Unionbirrai. 

After the course, Stefano will be spending a couple of days with Agostino and the friends at Birrificio Italiano brewing a Barley Wine as a collaborative effort. The beer will be named Sparrow Pit in homage to the Peak District hamlet. 

The beer will be brewed at Thornbridge with a similar recipe at the beginning of May and both brews will age in wood for nearly twelve months. The Italian version will ripen in Ramandolo wine barrels, the British in three-years-old barriques that Nyetimber Vineyard had used to experiment with barrel fermentation for a possible future special cuvée. 

Birrificio Italiano and Thornbridge Brewery will release their joint efforts after twelve months from the making, in April 2010 and May 2010 respectively. This is an ongoing collaboration. Each year will see a single batch of the beer being made at the two breweries, and twelve months after that there will be a special presentation night where the public will have the chance to taste the new release alongside the past years bottlings. 

A chocolate Orange Mild 

A simple chocolate orange has provided the latest inspiration at Thornbridge with their brewing of a new dark mild. Working closely with local Peak District chocolatiers, CocoaDance, the ale is brewed using mandarin peel and star anise followed by maturation on organic cocoa nibs to give a distinct “chocolate orange” character. 

A visit by the Thornbridge brewers to the Castleton chocolate company to learn about the processes involved in chocolate production was an important part of the collaboration. “David Golubows, the CocoaDance chocolatier, knows a lot about how flavours work together which is also vital to brewing good beers” says Kelly Ryan, Thornbridge’s Brewery Manager, “and he suggested the use of mandarin peel instead of orange zest which will improve the character of the beer”. 

The result of the partnership is a beer suitably called “CocoaDance” that marries the flavours of the ingredients into a rich, smooth ale and at only 3.5% shows you don’t need to sacrifice taste and impact for strength.

Abbeydale Brewery

Abbeydale Brewery were astonished and delighted when local cavers Rob Eavis and Robbie Shone contacted them to say that they had discovered a new section of the massive Titan cave system under the Peak District and that they had named one of the new chambers “Absolution” after their favourite beer, which they regularly drink at the Red Lion in Litton. 

Titan is the largest natural shaft in the country at some 141 meters deep and Absolution is a hitherto undiscovered chamber off a side branch of the system. The two cavers had to clear a choke point to access it. They were very impressed by the colour of the cavern which reminded them of their favourite beer. The brewery think the cave is quite beautiful though they have yet to find any volunteers to make the trip down there to see it for real, Titan is only accessible to proper cavers! 

A celebration was held at the Red Lion in Litton with much Absolution consumed and a special, limited edition pumpclip has been produced which shows Katie Dent, another of the cavers, in Absolution.

Kelham Island Brewery

Two new beers to report, March of the Mods, a 5% IPA which is the latest in their musically themed series of special beers, the other is a Yorkshire Best Bitter at 3.7% ABV.

Well who’d have thought it’s ten years since the new Brewery was opened. On March 16th 1999 Andy Eccles and Paul Ward poured the malt into the mash tun and before we knew it the first pale Rider was produced. Going onto to win the Champion beer of Britain in 2004 - from small acorns etc., having started in the now visitors centre in the Fat Cat beer garden. Dave Wickett would like to thank Sheffield Camra branch for their lifetime achievement award. We would also like to congratulate the Kelham Tavern in their success being voted Pub of the Year and hope for a bit a reflected glory. Kelham Island Tavern ,the Fat Cat, The Harlequin and the newcomer The Milestone along with Kelham Island Brewery have firmly put the Sheffield Real Ale trail on the national map. We await the Gardeners Rest reopening to join in. Our beer sales have gone from strength to strength and it’s amazing how many younger drinkers of proper craft beer are sampling the stuff. Well it’s watch this space as we hope to expand our capacity in the next year by extending on land by the brewery. Watch out for 2 new special next month followed by the return of our summer award winning Golden Eagle. We have just put Grande Pale into 330 ml bottled conditioned and this will be on sale in the Dram Shop, Archer Road Beer stop and the Fat cat.

TEN YEARS AFTER - Handcrafted 4% Pale ale. Optic Malt and Pale ale malt combine to give a sweet flavourful brew with a punchy hop aroma. Grapefruit, citrus, Sherbet pine fresh character with hops from New Zealand. Brewed to commemorate Ten Years in our new brewery and featuring a Pete McKee painting of a northern soul man.

Brewed using the same fruity flavoured North American hops which feature in our multi award winning PALE RIDER along with beautiful roasted barley fresh from Yorkshires leading malting, plus water drawn from the foothills of the Pennines. we bring you NIGHT RIDER, a 5.3% Stout. Dark as can be, smooth as you like, with wonderful chocolate after tastes.

Maggie May: Following in the series of Kelham Island musically themed beers with pump clips illustrated by local artist Pete Mckee the brewer is calling wake up Maggie and get some of this! It’s a 4.7% ABV typically complex amber ale brewed with Munich, Amber and Pearl, Crystal and Wheat malts. The Malt flavour is sweet, aromatic and intense and the hop aroma is subtle, spicy and floral. This beer is unique and unforgetable. So as they say - you stole my heart but I love you anyway! This beer is the monthly special available during May.

Bradfield Brewery

John, Susan, Richard and Lisa Gill at Bradfield Brewery are long time supporters of the club, going to their first game in 1994/95 season rarely missing a game since.

When Bradfield Brewery started brewing the obvious choice for their cask colours was the white, teal and orange (the Steelers colours), a proven winning team. For the last 3 years Bradfield Brewery are proud to be corporate sponsors of the team who have, on a couple of occasions this season, been to the brewery to sample the very popular 4.5% Sheffield Steelers Ale brewed especially for the club.

On other news look out for our St George’s day brew – Bradfield Ye Olde English Ale 4.6%. After all the St Patrick’s Day celebrations it’s nice to commemorate the patron saint of England after all slaying a dragon must be harder than chasing a few snakes out of Ireland! For St Patrick’s Day, however, Bradfield did brew their usual Farmers Irish Dexter, but with new hop, technically making it a brand new beer.

Bradfield Brewery have now launched a new website at www.bradfieldbrewery.co.uk where you can get the latest news, brews and events directly from the brewery!

Sheffield Brewery Company

The Sheffield Brewery has seen a significant increase in sales through the distribution of its range of beers at several city locations. Pubs have included the Frog and Parrot, The Museum, The Porter Brook, The Broadfield and the Ball Inn as part of a ‘Made in Sheffield’ beer festival during the snooker. 

Head brewer, Tim Stillman, said “the focus for the brewery has been to attract a wide audience from Sheffield and beyond with our core range of fine quality real ales. Our Blanco Blonde, which is brewed from a lager malt, is one of our core range and has proved very popular with female as well as younger beer drinkers. Our core range now includes ‘Sheffield Porter’ which features regularly at the award winning Kelham Island Tavern and along with our other lighter ales will be in heavy demand in the Spring and Summer months.” Crucible Best is also another firm favourite with landlords particularly as the snooker season is fast approaching. Visitors to Sheffield are keen on trying locally produced ales and the Sheffield Brewery prides itself on producing beers that have historic connections with our great city of Sheffield.

The brewery hosted another special event this time for the Aldershot Signal Squadron as part of their St George’s celebrations. A group of 40 signalmen and women attended the brewery in fancy dress - photos will be published in next month’s Beer Matters.

Towards the end of last month the directors of The Sheffield Brewery were invited to the Advanced Manufacturing Park, off the Parkway, to celebrate the brewery becoming the 125th member of the ‘Made In Sheffield’ mark. The mark is being promoted by Creative Sheffield to recognise those businesses that are manufacturing products in the Sheffield region.

Non-executive director, Peter Rawlinson, said this is a very proud moment for the brewery and we will certainly be adopting the ‘Made in Sheffield’ trade mark to develop our markets and continue to promote Sheffield. Head brewer, Tim Stillman, said the focus for us has been to attract a wide audience from Sheffield and beyond with our core range of fine quality real ales. Our Blanco Blonde, which is brewed from a lager malt, is one of our core range and has proved very popular with female as well as younger beer drinkers. Our core range now includes ‘Sheffield Porter’ which features regularly at the award winning Kelham Island Tavern and along with our other lighter ales are heavily in demand in the Spring and Summer months.

In the glamour shot is the team from the brewery with Eddy Munnelly, sales manager, in the centre holding the ‘worlds’ most expensive and unbreakable pint pot, manufactured from Titanium. To his right, Charles Turner, MD at Durham Duplex and Chairman of the ‘Made In Sheffield’ award celebrated by pouring a bottle of ‘Five Rivers’. At the back is Tim with ‘Blanco Blonde’ and Peter to his left pouring a ‘Seven Hills’.

The brewery hosted another special networking evening in March for a group of 40 professionals and entrepreneurs as part of Sheffield Business Club’s program of 2009 events. Kevin Elliott, Chair of SBC, said “the brewery puts on a very friendly event at a great venue which is a cost-effective way, particularly during these difficult times, to entertain staff and customers. Our members were impressed with the range of beers and Tim’s knowledge of brewing. Pat Wilson’s quizzes are also the stuff of legend and to pick a Sheffield theme was a brilliant idea for the night.’ Eddy Munnelly said “the range of events we’ve now hosted has been amazing from a speed dating night to Morris dancing as well as staff parties and birthday events. Our free bar offering a superb range of quality real ales and the delicious meat and potato pies from the Crusty Cob sandwich shop across the way are just the job.”

St. George’s Real Ale Festival 23rd – 26th April and the relaunch of the Don Valley Real Ale Trail leaflet - The Hillsborough Hotel, New Barrack Tavern, Gardeners Rest, Fat Cat, Riverside, Harlequin, Kelham Island Tavern and Wellington are confirmed as taking part. Look on our website at sheffieldbrewery.com for information.

Crown Brewery

A constant favourite on the bar at the Hillsborough Hotel, Traditional Bitter, won the bitter category at the Oakwood Beer Festival In Rotherham.

Acorn Brewery

Doncaster beer festival saw Acorn’s Darkness win Mild of the festival and Bobek IPA was voted best ‘LocAle’ of the festival. 

Hope Valley Brewery